Desire for cheap prices causes another catastrophe.
In the early news, a report tells of a frantic search for survivors under way at a building outside the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, which collapsed on Wednesday morning, killing at least 96 people. After the worst disaster in Bangladesh's industrial history, casualties are still rising. Tens of thousands of weeping family members are gathered at the site. Apparently, over 2,000 people were inside the building, which collapsed like a pancake within minutes. Local hospitals were overwhelmed with more than 1,000 people injured. Read the full story here.
Police said the factory owners had ignored warnings not to allow their workers into the building after cracks were noticed on Tuesday. The cracks even attracted the interest of local news stations, prompting questions over Bangladesh's chronically poor safety standards.
In the early news, a report tells of a frantic search for survivors under way at a building outside the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, which collapsed on Wednesday morning, killing at least 96 people. After the worst disaster in Bangladesh's industrial history, casualties are still rising. Tens of thousands of weeping family members are gathered at the site. Apparently, over 2,000 people were inside the building, which collapsed like a pancake within minutes. Local hospitals were overwhelmed with more than 1,000 people injured. Read the full story here.
Police said the factory owners had ignored warnings not to allow their workers into the building after cracks were noticed on Tuesday. The cracks even attracted the interest of local news stations, prompting questions over Bangladesh's chronically poor safety standards.
Bangladesh has one of the largest garment industries in the world, providing cheap clothing for major Western retailers which benefit from its widespread low-cost labor. Clothing supply firms from Canada, USA, around Europe, and the UK, used the businesses inside the building. In a highly competitive market, pressure from retailers to keep costs down was in part responsible for unsafe conditions.
Lengths of textile that were earlier being cut into garments—many destined for Western consumers—were now being used as makeshift slides to evacuate survivors and corpses. The owners of the factory are now said to have gone into hiding.
If Western companies really want safety standards to improve, they need to pay higher prices.
In these times of rising prices, it is hard to accept increased costs. One more thing could tilt the balance for struggling families. Here's the question we should all face: Do we care enough about these poor Bangladeshi workers, who only want to earn enough money to keep their family fed, to put our hand in our pocket and bring out more cash for our clothing?
Lengths of textile that were earlier being cut into garments—many destined for Western consumers—were now being used as makeshift slides to evacuate survivors and corpses. The owners of the factory are now said to have gone into hiding.
If Western companies really want safety standards to improve, they need to pay higher prices.
In these times of rising prices, it is hard to accept increased costs. One more thing could tilt the balance for struggling families. Here's the question we should all face: Do we care enough about these poor Bangladeshi workers, who only want to earn enough money to keep their family fed, to put our hand in our pocket and bring out more cash for our clothing?
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